Seventeen football fans dead in stampede at Angolan stadium

At least 17 football fans have died in a stampede at a stadium in northern Angola yesterday, police said, adding that scores of other spectators were injured, many of them seriously.

Panic spread through the crowd at the match in the town of Uige between Santa Rita de Cassia and Recreativo de Libolo in Angola's domestic league season.

"There was a blockage at the entrance to the January 4 stadium... this obstruction caused multiple fatalities -- 17 deaths, and there are 56 injured in the hospital," police spokesman Orlando Bernardo said.

He added that there were an unknown number of children among the dead, and that hospitals were treating those injured.

Police said hundreds of fans had tried to enter the already packed stadium to see the match, causing a crush that pushed some people to the ground.

Many of the dead were trampled to death or suffocated.

"While the players were on the field, outside fans were trying to get into the stadium and a gate probably gave way to the pressure of the crowd causing several people to fall who were literally trampled on by the crowd," said the Recreativo de Libolo club in a statement on its website.

In May 1964, 320 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured during a stampede at a Peru-Argentina match at Lima's National Stadium. Fans could not escape the crush and were trampled or asphyxiated.

Britain renovated its football grounds after 56 people died in a fire in a wooden stand in 1985 and 96 Liverpool supporters died in a crush during an FA Cup semi-final in 1989.